“Calling Dr. Doom”‏

“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. No man has learned anything rightly, until he knows that every day is Doomsday”. -Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Society and Solitude, Work and Days

Doom is a word indicating a predetermined course of events, a Fate or Destiny, especially tragic or fatal ones.

“I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail”.- William Faulkner, in his speech at the Nobel Prize Banquet after receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature (10 December 1950)

“Look upon this moment. Savor it! Rejoice with great gladness! Great gladness! Remember it always, for you are joined by it. You are One, under the stars. Remember it well, then… this night, this great victory. So that in the years ahead, you can say, “I was there that night, with Arthur, the King!” For it is the doom of men that they forget”. – Merlin, following the decisive British victory over the Saxons at the Battle of Badon, in Excalibur (1981), written by Rospo Pallenberg and John Boorman

“Brief and powerless is man’s life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark”. Bertrand Russell, in “Mysticism and Logic” in A Free Man’s Worship (1903)

“You’re all sinners. You’re all doomed to perdition. You’re all goin’ to the painful, stinkin’, scaldin’, everlastin’ tortures of a fiery hell, created by God for sinners, unless, unless, unless you repent”. – Elmer Gantry (1960), screenplay by Richard Brooks, based on the novel by Sinclair Lewis

“I don’t personally consider myself Dr. Doom. I call myself Dr. Realist, even though it’s less exciting and more boring than being called Dr. Doom. If you are consistently saying ‘the world is going to end,’ who is going to listen to you?” Nouriel Roubini

Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom) is a fictional character that appears in publications by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962) wearing his trademark metal mask and green cloak.

Victor von Doom was born decades ago to a tribe of Latverian gypsies under the rule of an unnamed nobleman called the Baron. Victor’s mother was witch Cynthia Von Doom who died by Mephisto’s hand while von Doom was young. His father, Werner, was the leader of the tribe and a renowned medicine man who kept his wife’s sorceress life quiet in order to protect Victor from a similar fate. Soon after Cynthia’s death, the Baron’s wife grew incurably ill from cancer and Werner was called to the capitol to heal her. When she succumbed to illness, the Baron labeled Werner a murderer and called for his death. Werner escaped with young Victor, having realized the night before the woman would die. He goes on to die of exposure on the mountainside, cradling the boy in a final embrace and giving him his garments to keep him warm. Victor survived and, on return to the gypsy camp, discovered his mother’s occult instruments and swore revenge on the Baron. Victor grew into a headstrong and brilliant man, combining sorcery and technology to create fantastic devices to keep the Baron’s men at bay and protect the gypsies. His exploits attracted the attention of the dean of Empire State University, who sent someone to the camp. Offered the chance to study in the United States, von Doom chooses to leave his homeland and his love, Valeria, behind. Once in the United States, Victor met fellow student and future nemesis Reed Richards, who was intended to be his roommate, but von Doom disliked him and asked for another roommate. After a time, Victor constructed a machine intended to communicate with the dead. Though Richards tried to warn him about a flaw in the machine, seeing his calculations were a few decimals off, Victor continued on with disastrous results. The machine violently failed and the resulting explosion seemingly severely damaged his face. It is later revealed that Ben Grimm, a friend of Richards who despised Victor for his superior attitude, tampered with the machine. He would later blame himself for Doctor Doom ‘s eventual rise to power, but never revealed this information to anyone. Expelled after the accident, Victor traveled the world until he collapsed on a Tibetan mountainside. Rescued by a clan of monks, Victor quickly mastered the monks’ disciplines as well as the monks themselves. Victor then forged himself a suit of armor, complete with a scowling mask, and took the name Doctor Doom. As Doctor Doom, he would go on to menace those he felt responsible for his accident—primarily, Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four. He succeeded in taking over Latveria, taking an interest in the welfare of the Roma.

Jack Kirby modeled Doctor Doom after Death, with the armor standing in for that character’s skeleton: “It was the reason for the armor and the hood. Death is connected with armor and the inhuman-like steel. Death is something without mercy, and human flesh contains that mercy.”

Kirby further described Doctor Doom as being “paranoid”, wrecked by his twisted face and wanting the whole world to be like him: “Doctor Doom is an evil person, but he’s not always been evil. He was [respected]…but through a flaw in his own character, he was a perfectionist.”

Doctor Doom: Bereft of my technology… mystic armor damaged… offensive and defensive capabilities minimal. Enemy forces… [a horde of demons closes in] substantial. It matters not. Even cornered, to my last breath I remain who and what I am. I will not hide, nor tremble, nor beg. Let them come and reckon with fury that is DOOM defiant. Here I stand, hell-horde! Unbowed! But understand: If it is my destiny that I should perish this day, I shall not go down easily… and I shall NOT go down ALONE. Demons: RIP its SKIN. Wear it for HIDE. Its EYES for me. Tear its FLESH from its BONES. Doctor Doom: Yes, come, and let us make an end of it — there is DOOM enough for ALL! – Michael Straczynski (June 2006), “The Hammer Falls (Part 2)”, Fantastic Four (537)

Described as “iconic”, Doctor Doom is one of the most well-received supervillains of the Marvel universe, as well as one of the most recurring; in his constant battles with heroes and other villains, Doctor Doom has appeared more times than any other villain. The comics site Panels of Awesome ranked Doctor Doom as the number one villain in their listing of the top ten villains in comics; Wizard Magazine went a step further by declaring Doctor Doom the fourth greatest villain of all time.

A ride called Doctor Doom’s Fearfall is located at Islands of Adventure in the Universal Orlando Resort.

“Modern science says: ‘The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future.’ From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom”. Nikola Tesla

“Being an environmentalist isn’t all about doom and gloom”.David Suzuki

Doom metal is an extreme form of heavy metal music that typically uses slower tempos, low-tuned guitars and a much “thicker” or “heavier” sound than other metal genres. Both the music and the lyrics intend to evoke a sense of despair, dread, and impending doom.

The genre is strongly influenced by the early work of Black Sabbath, who formed a prototype for doom metal with songs such as “Black Sabbath”, “Electric Funeral” and “Into the Void”. During the first half of the 1980s, a number of bands from England (Pagan Altar, Witchfinder General), the United States (Pentagram, Saint Vitus) and Sweden (Candlemass, Count Raven) defined doom metal as a distinct genre.

Lyrics in doom metal play a key role. Often, they are pessimistic and include themes such as: suffering, depression, fear, grief, dread, death and anger. While some bands write lyrics in introspective and personal ways, others convey their themes using symbolism – which may be inspired by literature.

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